Lawsuit Targets Colorado School Funding

DENVER (AP) — A group of Colorado school districts are suing the state over a funding procedure they say violates the constitution.

A lawsuit filed in Denver Friday challenges a state school-funding procedure adopted in 2009, during the recession. Plaintiffs including the Colorado PTA and several school districts say the funding procedure violates the state constitution, which requires school funding to increase by inflation and enrollment growth.

The school funding has been partially restored because of an improved economy. But plaintiffs want to prevent Colorado from using the funding procedure in future downturns by using factors beyond inflation and enrollment growth to cut education budgets.

The plaintiffs' lawyers worked on an unsuccessful school-funding legal challenge that was dismissed last year by the state Supreme Court.